Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Beriberi. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.
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![is some lack of men, because many have died of bebes, which is a disease of the legs very common in those islands. A footnote says '* this is apparently a reference to beriberi. Volume XXXV, page 271, in a translation of affairs in Filipinas by Fray Joseph Fayol, Manila, 1647, contains the following: ** Moreover, there is a disease, known as Verber (i. e., beriberi), which is now prevalent throughout the fleet, by which most of the men have been attacked. Volume XXXVII, page 28, in a translation of a document by an unknown author, written in 1669, contains this information: During the interval the said General Rayo was at the point of death; for he was in distress from the dampness of that locality and the disease of beriberi from which he suffered. While these quotations from old authors cannot be taken as indisputable evidence of the existence of beriberi, yet it is extremely probable that this disease not only existed in the Philippines before 1882, but that it was present and recognized from the very earliest years of the Spanish occupation. It is, of course, impossible to secure any information as to conditions that existed prior to this time. The above is an extremely brief account of the development of our knowledge of beriberi from 1700-1900. Only a few of the classical works have been mentioned, although the literature of this period, particularly from 1800-1900, teemed with contributions to the su])ject. To mention each one would be an endless task, and would only result in confusion. In brief, it may be said that this large amount of literature aided greatly in definitely establishing the symptomatology of beriberi and in fixing it as a clinical entity, but only succeeded in confusing the question of its etiology.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20995611_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
